Author’s Note: In early 2014, a Far-Right ‘Euro-Maidan’ Junta with Neo-Nazi (and anti-Russian) tendencies (supported by the Catholic Church and such Ukrainian celebrities as the famous boxing duo of the ‘Klitschko’ brothers) illegally seized power in Ukraine. This usurped the democratically elected government that was ‘centrist’ in policy and pro-Russian in tendency. This miscarriage of the democratic process was immediately supported by the US, UK and EU – and because of this Western dalliance with tyranny – had to be (de facto) accepted as legitimate by the rest of the world. The people of the Crimea, however, withdrew from their association with the Ukraine on the grounds they did not want to be ruled over by a Neo-Nazi Junta – and a government they did not democratically elect. A referendum followed and the majority of the people voted for the Crimea to secede from the Ukraine and ‘return’ to Russia – Western media sources refer to this series of democratic events as ‘Russia Invading Crimea’.
Meanwhile, due to this illegal seizure of political power (supported by the Armed Forces of the Ukraine), a number of regions of Eastern Ukraine also announced their ‘suspension’ of their membership of the Ukraine pending democratic referenda to decide their future (with many expressing their desire to ‘join’ Russia). The US, UK and EU condemned this further (lawful) democratic ‘rejection’ of the illegal Neo-Nazi ‘Euro-Maidan’ by these regions of Eastern Ukraine and started arming the AFU with NATO weaponry and supported the call of the ‘new’ Kyiv government for the supporters of the Neo-Nazi and Far-Right Movements around the world to muster in the Ukraine and form ‘Nationalist’ (Punishment) Battalions along the lines of the Nazi German ‘SS’ Units deployed in the Ukraine between 1941-1943).
As the ‘Euro-Maidan’ Neo-Nazi Junta had expressed its violent opposition to Russia and declared its intention toward partnering with the European Union (EU) and joining ‘NATO’ – both these entities swore to finance and arm these ‘Nationalist’ Battalions, of which there were many including the Azov, Aidar, Dnipr-1 and Lugansk-1, etc. These Fascist Units (with many trained in the US and UK) not only assisted in the destruction of the Kharkov, Odessa and Russo-Carpathian People’s Republics – but were also deployed by the illegitimate ‘Euro-Maidan’ regime along the border of the disputed territory in the Donbass region with their primary function being to ‘terrorise’ the local populations of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into giving-up their claims to ‘Independence’! In response to this terroristic aggression – the local populations of the DPR and the LPR formed the ‘People’s Militias’ as self-defence forces partly established using military equipment and personnel from the Ukrainian Army stationed in the area, Russian assistance and a small number of foreign volunteers. Whilst the AFU continuously fired Western-provided artillery shells into the populated areas, the ‘Nationalist’ (Punishment) Battalions would ‘patrol’ these areas looking for local people to bully, persecute, rape, torture and kill! A UN Report states that between 2014-2022 the ‘Euro-Maidan’ Junta inflicted around 14,000 deaths in the Donbass region with tens of thousands being evacuated into Russia to save their lives. During early 2022, the Russian Federation formerly recognised the Sovereign States of the DPR and the LPR (legitimising their existence and claims to lawful ‘Independence’), and then agreed to a DPR and LPR request to send Russian Armed Forces into Donbass to assist in the ‘clearing-out’ of the illegitimate ‘Euro-Maidan’ Military Forces that were now (according to ‘International Law’) ‘illegally’ occupying the region!
The Russian entry into this war began on February 24th, 2022 and has seen a steady military advancement throughout the disputed territories of the Donbass region (all areas claimed within the Sovereignty of the DPR and the LPR). Russia has not ‘invaded’ the Ukraine as falsely claimed by the Western media but has lawfully entered territories occupied and owned by the DPR and the LPR which the ‘Euro-Maidan’ Junta must now renounce as not being part of the Ukraine and withdrew their unwanted military, police and civil organisations. This Russian action has destroyed the best NATO-armed, trained and equipped Ukrainian military formations and has scuppered a planned offensive designed to annex Donbass and a large swathe of Western Russian territory into Ukrainian (Neo-Nazi) hands – to ultimately be occupied and patrolled by NATO! The collective West is upset by Russia’s lawful actions as it has put an end to the idea of extending NATO up to the borders of Russia – and into Russia itself – using the ideology of the traditionally anti-Russian Neo-Nazi Movement. As the Soviet Union lost 41 million men, women and children between 1941-1945 fighting Hitlerism, it is understandable that Russia (even a ‘capitalist’ one) would take exception to these plans.
This all being said, what follows is an overview of what I have experienced gaining news reports first-hand from pro-Russian Ukrainian and Russian sites on Telegram. All that I have experienced below does not negate what I have written above. Russia has a right to protect its own self-interests even if these self-interests are nothing like those of the Soviet Union! This thinking applies to the Ukraine – but the West infiltrating this area with the far-right and actively encouraging, financing and empowering Neo-Nazi Movements that either should not be allowed to exist – or should be forced to exist only in the shadows, is not an example of ‘self-determination’ in the Ukraine! Indeed, many Ukrainians want this Western-backed Neo-Nazi Junta gone and are actively supporting Russia but none of this is being told in the West because it is not allowed to be told! This observation does not detract from the many contradictory and unsavoury aspects of modern, Russian nationalism that I have encountered! One disturbing post on Telegram declared that despite the world ‘uniting’ against Israel in 1975 (and the UN voting to declare ‘Zionism’ a form of White Supremacy) – modern Russia should follow Israel’s example and simply ‘ignore’ this condemnation and carry-on regardless! The Russian poster understood that the USSR was a prime mover behind this anti-Zionist vote but ignored this point – whilst equating the world’s condemnation of Israel’s ongoing War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity as somehow being ‘similar’ to the West’s political ‘opposition’ to Russia’s military assertiveness!
This type of political illiteracy is commonplace throughout modern Russia which has only been a bourgeoise (predatory) capitalist State for just thirty-one years. Despite the truth contained within my above commentary – there is much to be both ‘bothered’ and ‘concerned’ about with regards to the general attitudes of many Russian people. Although the Communist Parties of Russia, DPR and LPR speak of ‘Internationalism’ in theory, I have seen virtually ‘zero’ of this in reality! This is a shame as a unified Working-Class rejection of NATO aggression and Ukrainian Neo-Nazism would serve to completely undermine what the International Bourgeoisie is attempting to do and divert the threat of another world which would see the bourgeois leaders sit safely in their bunkers whilst working-class armies slay one another on yet another blood-soaked chessboard of life! For eight-years I have covered this issue and as a Marxist-Leninist (Maoist) have firmly sided with the Communist Parties of the DPR and LPR! (My family has even carried the flags of the DPR and LPR during London political marches in the UK!
For the last four-months I have immersed myself deep into the Russian cultural milieu (via Telegram) and dedicated my blog to reproducing at least ‘three’ good quality, relevant and unusual news stories a day to broadcast the over side of the story. I believe this phase of my news coverage is now at an end as I feel that I have started experiencing a side of modern Russian existence I would rather have nothing to do with. As far as I am concerned, homophobia is intrinsically linked to Neo-Nazi ideology and overt Hitlerism! I cannot reconcile how modern Russians can ‘hate’ gay people and talk about torturing and murdering them in the same conversions where they eulogise the Soviet Red Army’s ‘liberation’ of Concentration Camps (many containing ‘gays’) – and talk about their ‘righteous’ fight against the Ukrainian Neo-Nazis! Like the Zionist Israelis, the Neo-Nazi Ukrainians are ‘Pink-Washing’ the issue of gay persecution as neither Jewish theology nor Neo-Nazi ideology allow for monogamous, loving gay (or ‘tran’s) relationships or transitions. The irony here, is that whilst the Nazi German regime brutally persecuted loving, adult, (gay) relationships – the same Hitlerites encouraged a type of ‘macho’ gayness (similar to that found in the US prison system), practiced amongst the ‘SS’ Units which saw aristocratic Officers ‘rape’ and ‘torture’ young Aryan (male) recruits as part of a bizarre and inhuman initiation process!
Furthermore, during the Nazi German invasion of the USSR the German soldiers (and their allies) unleashed a policy of mass ‘rape’ which saw Soviet men, women AND children sexually violated before being brutally killed! Millions of Soviet women and girls gave birth to half-German (or half Axis ally) children who were brought up after the war as ‘Soviet Citizens’ and who learned to hate what their biological fathers had done in the USSR and the Neo-Nazi ideology that had encouraged and justified such barbaric actions! As good Soviet Socialists – such children often grew-up to join the NKVD (Revolutionary Police) or the Soviet Red Army to help prevent such a tragedy happening to the Soviet people in the future! In 1992, as a means to propagandise against the very popular Socialist System still extant throughout East Germany – the British historian Anthony Beevor assisted the US anti-intellectuals when he published his book covering the Battle of Berlin – inserting an entirely false chapter alleging that Soviet Red Army soldiers had committed ‘mass rape’ during the sixteen-day battle – a murderous confrontation that cost the Soviets 350,000 casualties! Yet another example of (inverted) US propaganda (since thoroughly ‘debunked’) which absolves the Nazi Germans for their terrible behaviour and instead attempts to ‘protect’ that behaviour upon the Soviets! ACW (29.6.2022)
I have written previously about this issue but will briefly recap. My experience with the Mainland Chinese community online has been welcoming and accepting – in accordance with that country’s ‘Socialistic’ International principles. The unquestioned racism aimed at the minds and bodies of the Chinese people is such that the general attitude is one of ‘proving’ none of these lies as being ‘true’! My experience with the ethnic Russians has been nothing like this. Telegram has allowed me access to a substantial cross-reference of everyday Russian opinion and the most obvious and outstanding point is that there is no ‘cross-reference’! Everyone expressing themselves in writing on this social media platform (and I have engaged with hundreds of Channels) toe the official governmental line to a remarkable degree. The only lateral differences I see is one of extent of agreement and never one of any disagreement. This is a remarkable social and cultural achievement in a capitalist country that is only thirty-one years old. Of course, it could by a left-over from the days of the USSR, but this would not explain the almost natural centre-right and right of centre viewpoints that are the ‘norm’ for most Russian discussions. I see this as an ‘oddity’ for a country with a seventy-four-year history of Socialism and a people whose suffering at the hands of the far-right is legendary and almost beyond measure in its inhumanity and sheer brutality!
The problem Russia has is that it appears wedded to the history of the USSR when there is no need for it to be. The USSR was not modern Russia and modern Russia is not the USSR. The Nazi Germans did attempt ‘genocide’ throughout the USSR and the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the USSR ensured that the Russian people remained the ‘enemy’ of the International Fascist Movement and was responsible for the cohesion of the Soviet nation in the face of Nazi German terror! Nazi Germany was not alone in its invasion of the USSR and was assisted by Italy, Spain, (both ‘blessed’ by the Catholic Church which openly supported fascism at the time and assisted in the escape of ‘Nazi’ War Criminals after the war), Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland and Bulgaria – whilst being given vital natural resources by countries such as Sweden, Portugal and places like Turkey, etc. On top of all this, there were the numerous ‘Volunteers’ from all over the world (including Catholic ‘Ireland’) that congregated along the Western border of the USSR in 1941 all looking to carve-up the Socialist heartland and divide it amongst themselves! Interestingly, after suffering two crushing defeats in 1938 and 1939 respectively, the Imperial Japanese were not that keen on reengaging with the Soviet Red Army yet again, particularly as their plans lay elsewhere (against the British, Dutch and US Imperialists throughout Asia).
The situation today is quite different as the bourgeoisie rules the roost! A bourgeois counter-Revolution began with Khrushchev in 1956 and very slowly worked its way through Soviet society – reaching a peak in the 1980s! In 1991, the Soviet proletariat gave-up its control of the means of production and handed it over without a whimper to the bourgeoisie! Socialism was over and liberal democracy – and predatory capitalism – took its place. The altruistic Socialist ‘Internationalism’ of the USSR was replaced by the (self-interested) capitalist ‘Nationalism’ we see today operating in the Ukraine and in Russia. Of course, this is just exactly the ‘same’ bourgeois capitalism that is operating in the West – so what is the problem? If the same ‘bourgeois’ class has control of the means of production, where is the conflict? Why is there all the arguing? Why is there no harmony between the different elements of what is essentially the same class entailing exactly the same class interests? In a very real sense, the bourgeois behaves very much like the aristocracy it stole power from, with different branches spending their time arguing and fighting amongst other elements for dominance and prestige!
As for the contemporary situation, the US, UK and EU are controlled by the bourgeoisie, as is the Ukraine and modern Russia! The US (which has controlled the UK and EU since the end of WWII), wants to be the only dominant ‘capitalist’ country on the planet with all other countries subordinate to its needs. Part of this dominance is the utter destruction of ALL 20th century ‘Socialist’ Revolutions, and this explains the continuous racism toward China – by far the most successful of the Socialist countries. The Ukraine, as a means to gain prestige and wealth in an area historically subordinate to the will of Russia – has embraced the far-right ideology of a US-controlled campaign in the region that has seen Neo-Nazi regimes brought to power throughout Eastern Europe on the grounds that such a Hitlerite ideology is inherently ‘anti-Russian’ for historical reasons! The fact that the US, UK and EU would pursue and support such a despicable policy just goes to show the moribund nature of the bourgeois class! Our grandfathers in the UK and China, for instance, volunteered to fight in the ‘Internationalist’ war against world fascism definitely on the side of Socialism! My British grandfathers would be disgusted today – to see the UK utilise Neo-Nazism as a political tactic!
The irony is that there is nothing special about modern Russia as it contains all the prejudices and discriminations found in ANY bourgeois-controlled country! The average Russian literally believes that LGBT Rights Movement represents a sinister plot to bring-down ‘Russian’ (that is ‘Slavic’) culture perpetuated by the Europeans and paid for by the Americans! Very real violence is threatened and carried-out and is filmed and uploaded to social media in Russia with little or no protests from Russian society in general. The anti-gay rhetoric is such that when I point-out that it is identical in nature to all the anti-gay rhetoric found on Western Neo-Nazi sites (as Hitler sent gays to the Death Camps) – the conversation becomes ‘quiet’ and I am ‘ignored’ – but continues around me unabated and in other directions just as one-sided and as hateful as ever! However, my presence on the Russian internet is usually ignored due to my obvious support for Socialism – which has no place in Russia today – even though Communist Party of Russia is forefront in the support of Donbass and bourgeois government policy (including remaining ‘silent’ about the anti-gay laws). The fact that gay people were amongst the survivors ‘liberated’ by the Soviet Red Army from the Hitlerite Death Camps is an inconvenient fact lost on most Russians – as is the fact that ‘tolerance’ does not have to equal ‘acceptance’ or ‘condoning’!
The quandary is that the Western bourgeoisie is blatantly ‘lying’ to its own populations about the Neo-Nazi policy being pursued throughout Eastern Europe! Although the Ukrainian Army – and the ‘Hitlerite’ Volunteer ‘Nationalist Battalions’ – inflicted around 14,000 deaths in the Donbass region between 2014-2022 using weaponry provided by NATO – the West has been pursuing a blatantly incorrect and one-sided narrative that has ‘hidden’ this disgraceful activity and which has instead turned all these Hitlerite Ukrainians into heroic victims, something they most definitely are not! The West has deliberately encouraged the eulogising of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis and punished anyone who has travelled to Donbass to assist the beleaguered people there! So-called Ukrainian ‘refugees’ are now being settled amongst use now in the West, just as similar Neo-Nazi fugitives were settled in the West from Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968! Let us not forget that the Pope personally requested that 10,000 Ukrainian ‘SS’ men be ‘secretly’ air-lifted out of Eastern Europe in 1945 to ‘protect’ them from Soviet Justice! Churchill agreed to this, and these mass murderers and paedophiles were resettled in Scotland! Therefore, it is clear that the West has a long history of cooperating with fascism!
Although modern Russia is a capitalist country that pursues racist and homophobic policies of its own, many people feel that Russia has a right to protect its own interests and its own borders from any encroachment from aggressive foreign powers. The fact that Russia aligns itself with its Soviet anti-fascist past means that many free-minded people support the Russian military as it seeks to clear-out all the Ukrainian Armed Forces from what is now the ‘Independent’ sovereign territory of Donbass! As a I speak, various ‘Referenda’ are being prepared to democratically decide whether liberated areas such as ‘Kherson’ directly join the territory of the Russian Federation. On that note, I suspect the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics will be ‘dissolved’ and these territories also ‘integrated’ into the Russian Federation! This will put an end to any notions of Socialism and an end to the independent operation of the Communist Parties of Donetsk and Lugansk – both of which I have translated articles for – and neither of which is officially recognised as ‘existing’ by their respective governments! These entities were said to be two local branches of the banned Communist Party of Ukraine that are still functioning – but from what I have seen over the last eight-years – these two groupings exist as extensions of the Communist Party of Russia! In an imperfect world there are imperfect conditions, situations and realities. A capitalist Russia is defending its borders by opposing a Western policy of supporting Neo-Nazism throughout the region and this is the tragedy that the general public in the West needs to know and understand! The West has no right in supporting Neo-Nazism or encroaching upon Russian territory or interests. Russia, as an opponent of Neo-Nazism, has no right propagating right-wing and far-right ideology amongst its own people as a means to prevent the development of Socialism! These are some of the things that I have seen.
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 